The Art of Application Performance Testing

Author: Ian Molyneaux
Publisher: O'Reilly
Pages: 160
ISBN: 978-0596520663
Aimed at: Testing beginners
Rating: 3
Pros: A reasonable overview
Cons: Very short and very hands-off
Reviewed by: Mike James

This is a book that talks about Application Performance testing rather than telling you how to do it. While there is lots of advice on the desirable properties of testing tools none are discussed in detail and this is certainly not a practical primer.

Chapter One starts off with the question that we all probably know the answer to - "Why performance test?". Chapter Two goes on to consider the fundamentals of effective performance testing some of which is fairly common sense  - get a code freeze, provide sufficient test data, allocate enough time etc. Chapter Three discusses the process of performance testing by way of two case studies.

Chapter Five outlines the problem of interpreting the results of performance testing with the aim of tracking down the root cause. This is a welcome discussion of a very general problem. The problem is so general however that you can't expect simple ready made solutions. In this case it is vital that the tester understands the system architecture. The final chapter is on the way individual technologies affect performance testing - Ajax, Citrix , HTTP, Java, Oracle, SAP and OSA. Each section is very short and most don't say anything really helpful beyond the fact that the technology exists with its basic characteristic.

This is very much a "hands off" approach to the subject and it might help you think about the overall problem of organising and starting application performance testing. The one really good piece of advice in the book is "start performance testing early - ridiculously early if possible".

Only buy this book if you are a beginner at performance testing or want to explain to management the sorts of things you should be doing. This very short book doesn't cover much ground.

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Modern Frontend Development with Node.js

Author: Florian Rappl
Publisher: Packt Publishing
Date: November 2022
Pages: 208
ISBN: 978-1804618295
Print: 1804618292
Kindle: B0B9BH5WBS
Audience: Node.js developers
Level: Introductory/Intermediate
Rating: 3
Reviewer: Ian Elliot
Modern development - what else is there?



The Reign of Botnets (Wiley)

Author: David Sénécal
Publisher: Wiley
Date: July 2024
Pages: 356
ISBN: 978-1394262410
Print: 1394262418
Kindle: B0D1CJR212
Audience: General
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

This book is subtitled 'Defending against Abuses, Bots and Fraud on the Internet', which is a big and important topic. 


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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 April 2010 )